News:
December 20, 2019
As Sierra Leone, prepares to take up the Speakership mantle of the fifth Legislature, of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, leader of the Sierra Leonean delegation to the Community Parliament, Chernor Maju Bah has said he want to see more interactions between the Council of Ministers and Authority of Heads of States.
According to Mr. Bah without the collaboration of the peoples’ representative in the sub-region a lot cannot be achieved as there has been discussion with few stakeholders, Heads of States, Council of Ministers and the Commission.
In an interview, though he did not mention the names of the stakeholders, he indicated that Sierra Leone gave the stakeholders assurance of the fifth Parliament of ECOWAS working hand in hand to achieve a lot, in the wake of terrorist attacks and other security concerns in the sub-region.
“We should see increase in synergy between Parliament, Council of Ministers, Authority of Heads of States and the Commission. At the end of the day, whatever they do we are aware, same with us, so that we complement each other”.
Mr. Chernor Maju Bah further pointed out that despite half of the lawmakers in the fourth legislature would not be coming back to the fifth parliament, their interaction has been good and would work collectively as a team in the next Parliament.
When questioned as to what they will be doing as delegates from Sierra Leone to ensure that the next Speaker succeeds, he noted that whatever they do will be in the name of their country and would give their utmost support.
“If he succeeds, the pride goes to Sierra Leone, God forbid if it happens the opposite, we will blame ourselves. I want to assure you we would not arrive at the junction of not succeeding, all we would be doing is to project the good image of our country and eventually the sub-region as a whole”, he said.
On his assessment on outgoing Speaker Mustapha Cisse Lo, he noted that he has done his own bit and leadership styles are different.
“Whatever we say he has his own plus and minuses, the fifth legislature should rather build on his positive side, and we do not repeat whatever we see as his minuses. I can assure you we would bring the best practices from different jurisdictions”.
He emphasized that what is important is that, the Speaker listens more to the lawmakers, “We lead by listening, we do not lead by dictating, there would be more engagement and consultation before arriving at conclusions”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Abuja